I loved Mrs Smith's shop. It was at the bottom left hand side of Ironmonger Street. (Now called Energy). It had a narrow little door to go through and there were two rooms in the shop. The first one had a counter and Mrs Smith was usually in that one wearing a large winter coat and heavy tortoiseshell glasses. Her grey hair was tied back. She always seemed to have what you were looking for. She sold all sorts of scissors, knives, pipe cleaners etc and was a very useful source of birthday presents if you had a male member of the family to buy for. You used to ask her for an item and she would retreat into the room at the back of the shop, usually getting out a pair of steps and ascending to rows of boxes on shelves. She would know just where to look and would return with a choice of two or three of whatever you had asked her for. She was always cheerful, even if you didn't buy anything from her.

I loved that shop when I was kid. It was a real emporium. I'm sure it hadn't changed in decades. It had a real old-world feel to it. I'm sure it hadn't changed since Edwardian - perhaps even Victorian times. It was the 1950s when I used to go in there.
I seem to recall it was run by two very nice kindly elderly ladies (sisters perhaps?).
If you only had a small amount to spend you could pick up a nice toy or game for about 1/6 in old money.
Although the shop was a bit fusty and old fashioned it was one of my favourite places in Stamford. A lot of the stock was very old but that is probably why the items were so cheap; they were probably still charging 1920s/1930s prices.
A wonderful memory of old Stamford.